Period drama and royal fans should add Syon Park to their list of places to visit in the Greater London Area. Syon Park encompasses Syon House, the grand London residence of the Duke of Northumberland; the early 19th Century Great Conservatory; and the Gardens (and 100-acre Parkland). Syon, a variation of Zion (which refers to the Holy City of David …

Happy Birthday Queen Victoria! #QueenVictoria at the Drury Lane Theatre. #HRP #Kensington #London #portrait #painting #frame #art #royal #igerslondon A photo posted by V (@ladyandtherose) on May 24, 2016 at 1:36pm PDT One of the palaces you must visit in London – if you like architecture and royal history – is Kensington Palace. The Historic Royal …

We’ve come to the last post in my Russian travel series! Today’s post is on the Kremlin, the fortified complex in central Moscow. The Kremlin was a film location in Russia’s War and Peace (1966) film, which featured the Novodevichy Convent and Ivan the Great Bell Tower. The Kremlin had once been the residence of …

My favourite place that we visited in St Petersburg in 2014 was the Hermitage Museum / Winter Palace. Less than a decade before visiting, my family and I watched Russian Ark (2002), a 96-minute historical drama by Alexander Sokurov, filmed in one shot through the Winter Palace. Anyone with an interest in history, particularly royal history, should …

Peterhof (also known as Petrodvorets: Peter’s Palace; Peterhof means Peter’s Court) at Petergof, St Petersburg, is known as Russia’s Versailles. Its namesake, Peter the Great, had designed a summer palace for himself. The original palace, Monplaisir, was completed in 1723. After his visit to the Palace of Versailles in 1717, Peterhof was great expanded and continued to be …

During my short visit to St Petersburg, our tour group managed to visit only 2 art museums (not counting the one inside the Winter Palace). Today’s post will focus on the Mikhailovsky Palace, which houses the Russian Museum of Russian fine art. This one of the film locations in BBC’s War and Peace (2016). The …

Today’s post is in honour of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, who is celebrating her 75th birthday! As you may or may not know, the Danish Royal Family is one of my two favourite royal families in Europe (the other being the British Royal Family). My interest in the DRF began when I found out that …

Feeling drained of the arts in your life? Craving for more history and culture? Are you in dire need to travel but are currently unable to leave? Or perhaps the weather is too miserable outside to leave home. Try (free) virtual museum visits! Last autumn, I visited the Google Art Project website and was surprised to find so …

Weather: 23-24Cs Visited: Starnberger See – Tutzing, Feldafing, Possenhofen We spent this lovely Good Friday walking under the sun from the southern point of Starnberger See (Tutzing) until Possenhofen, where we were blocked from continuing onto Starnberg, due to a bomb scare. It was very peaceful and clean around the lake. People were sunbathing, swimming, …

This month, I visited Schwangau, where the two Ludwig II castles are: Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. As I’d already visited Neuschwanstein 2 Octobers ago, I visited Schloß Hohenschwangau, the summer residence of Ludwig II’s parents, and later, that of his uncle, who acted as regent for his younger brother, the mentally ill King Otto. There were only 3 floors for public viewing: …

While the majority of the people were protesting the Atomkraft (nuclear?), I spent close to 3 hrs wandering the vast castle. Although many of the rooms had been destroyed during WWII, there were still many rooms full of art, porcelain, interior decor, furniture – whatever was saved or preserved. Visiting all these palaces make me wonder …

Place visited: Luxembourg City/ Stad Lëtzebuerg (capital) Royal Family: Grand Duke Henri (constitutional monarchy – the world’s only remaining sovereign Grand Duchy) Languages spoken: Luxembourgish, French, German Moien! So say the Luxembourgers for “hello” (same as Plattdeutsch spoken in Northern Germany and other countries). But it appeared that French is more spoken in Luxembourg for I …

Ort (place): Salzburg, Österreich Tour: the official “Sound of Music” tour by Panorama Tours Datum (date)/Zeit (time): Mo. 27. April, 9.30-13.30 Hostel I stayed at in Salzburg: Yoho Int’l Youth Hostel (26. Apr.) “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start…” So sang our tourguide, Trudi/Judy, a British lady with a British sense of …